Hartford Rushes Bushnell Park Tree-Cutting

SANDRA FROMSON | OP-EDThe Hartford Courant

Saturday, despite a legal appeal by two city residents, eight trees, pin oaks and northern red oaks, in Hartford's Bushnell Park (from an area beside the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch east to the pond) were among a number of trees cut down.

The process to remove these trees, while appearing to meet the letter of the law, was not clearly visible to the public until the eleventh hour.

The trees were posted for cutting in mid-May in preparation for a major reconstruction project involving the sidewalk and Jewell Street on the north side of the park. A hearing was requested within a week, yet the hearing was not held until June 16, 14 days before construction was to begin. The full magnitude of the tree removal was dampened by the fact that a number of the notices appeared to have been ripped from the trees, and not all trees were posted with the public hearing information.

At the hearing, a representative of the landscape design firm reviewed the Bushnell Park North Tree Removal and Planting Plan. It showed both the trees to be removed and proposed new trees. Unfortunately, the plan did not show the trees in relationship to their size.

For example, most of the trees to be removed were represented by small faint circles while all of the new trees were represented by large colored circles almost three times larger. Yet, the pin oaks and northern red oaks to be removed range in size from 14 inches to 36 inches in diameter, while the new trees were only 2.5 inches to 3 inches in diameter.

The rationale for removal of these trees is that they will interfere with proposed sidewalk and infrastructure improvements and will not survive the construction. Does this sound familiar? It should. In 2004, the same reasoning was used to recommend the removal of trees in front of the Hartford Public Library during renovation. Then, the public prevailed. Today, the two saved trees at either end of the library are spectacular and healthy.

The recommended sidewalk improvements on the north side of Bushnell Park are impressive and will provide a wonderful grand promenade along Bushnell Park and Jewell Street. It will provide the first step in implementing iQuilt concepts devised to make the downtown area more walkable and inviting to visitors, which is commendable.

Among the 86 trees that will be planted, the majority are red maples with several red oaks, London planes and Princeton American elms, among other species. The removal of the eight oaks in the corridor from the Memorial Arch to the pond, however, has created a large hole in the canopy that has shaded, comforted and been enjoyed by visitors to the park for decades. This is not the way to start this process.

June 19, three days after the hearing, the city forester deemed that "proposed tree removal is approved." Last Thursday, opponents filed an appeal with Superior Court and the city was served on Friday. On Saturday, the city had the trees cut down. I have never seen the city move so swiftly.

The trees in this area of the park have been under assault for years. In 1940, the burying of the Park River turned the area into "No Man's Land," according to a story in the Nov. 7, 1940, Courant. The article predicted that in the future, "new trees will spring." The subsequent widening of Jewell Street in 1951 also took its toll. However, the park director promised new trees that would provide "a handsome border along the park edge," according to a Courant story at the time. Indeed, a handsome border grew up.

We were not able to spare the eight from the chain saw. However, we continue to pursue the appeal. The city parks belong to all of us. Changes of this magnitude need to be clear and visible to the public well before execution.